The obesity drugmaker Novo Nordisk has cut its full-year sales and operating profit forecasts for the second time this year, sending its shares down by more than a fifth on Tuesday.
The maker of the weight-loss drug Wegovy is struggling to convince investors it can remain competitive in the obesity drug boom against US rival Eli Lilly.
“The lowered sales outlook for 2025 is driven by lower growth expectations for the second half of 2025,” the company said in a statement.
“This is related to lower growth expectations for Wegovy in the US obesity market, lower growth expectations for Ozempic in the US GLP-1 diabetes market, as well as lower-than-expected penetration for Wegovy in select IO [international operations] markets,” it said.
Novo now expects 2025 sales growth of 8%-14% in local currencies, down from its previous 13%-21% forecast range. It also lowered its operating profit growth estimate to 10%-16%, from 16-24% previously.
Sales rose 18% year on year in the second quarter and the first half of the year, Novo said. Its operating profit increased by 40% in the April-June quarter and by 29% in the first half, the company added.
Shares were down more than 21% at 355.30 Danish kroner (£41.21). Booming sales of Wegovy catapulted Novo to become Europe’s most valuable listed company in 2024, peaking at about €615bn (£532bn), but the value has since fallen by more than half.
Novo Nordisk also named Maziar Mike Doustdar as its new chief executive on Tuesday, relying on an experienced company insider to revive sales and its share price.
The appointment comes after the abrupt removal in May of CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen by Novo and the Novo Nordisk Foundation – the Danish company’s controlling shareholder.
Doustdar, who joined Novo in 1992, now serves as vice-president for international operations, a role he took after leading the company’s businesses first in the Middle East and then in south-east Asia, Novo said.
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The new chief executive’s most urgent challenge, according to investors and analysts, is to revive Novo’s performance in the US, the largest market by far for weight-loss drugs and where they are most profitable.
Novo launched its weight-loss drug Wegovy nearly two and a half years before Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. However, Zepbound prescriptions surpassed those of Wegovy this year by more than 100,000 a week.
The appointment comes at a challenging time for the global pharmaceutical industry as Donald Trump threatens to impose tariffs on imports and calls on drugmakers to lower their US prescription prices.